Since Eric doesn't want us to ever mention EZBoard again, I'll talk about it. I could have made this post in the last thread, but hey, this gives me a chance to start my very own first new thread here. And what better thing to talk about than a review of the past:

Our story probably should begin in 1997. We could certainly go back further, but we don't need to. During winter semester 1997, Eric wrote a few humor columns for the BYU Daily Universe readership. These proved popular enough that, in the fall of 1997, he was invited to write a weekly column for the campus newspaper. These continued, with a hiatus during summer term 1998, until February 1999, when, due to a falling-out with the newspaper management and other officials, Eric chose to stop writing for the Daily Universe.

In the meantime, however, Eric acquired a number of fans among his readers. He set up his own website, ericdsnider.com, and on two or three occasions invited fans to meet him at a specific time in a chat room. In one of these sessions, someone--it may have been benwalser, if I recall correctly, brought up the idea of a message board for Snide Remarks fans and readers. Eric may have indicated that he had already thought somewhat about it. At any rate, the germ that was to become this board was planted.

However, because Eric discontinued writing Snide Remarks, the idea of a message board became a moot issue for a time. Then, in August 1999, Eric announced that he would begin writing Snide Remarks for the Provo's newspaper, the Daily Herald. His first column, "Education Weak"http://www.ericdsnider.com/view.php?srkey=227 appeared Friday, August 20, 1999--though there had been a few Snide Remarks type columns preceding it.

The next evening, August 21, 1999, the first of what would become four Snide Remarks message boards was created, as a Yahoo! Club. Though Yahoo! has since renamed it as a "group", this forum still exists.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/snideremarks/Not counting an automatic welcome message generated by Yahoo!, the first message was posted by his brother, Jeff Snider. It reads as follows:

Finally, after months of waiting, Snide Remarks is back, and I couldn't behappier. In fact, I'd say I'm tickled pink!

(The first Snide Remarks post).

This board remained in official use for a little over eight months, garnering all of 626 messages (though three posts have been made since its demise). Then, on May 1, 2000, Eric made the following announcement:

My Web site now has its own bulletin board, to beused instead of this one. The Yahoo! club has servedits purpose (and still may be used for scheduledonline chats), but for posting messages, the new placeto be ishere:<br><br><a href=http://www.InsideTheWeb.com/mbs.cgi/mb1081955target=new>http://www.InsideTheWeb.com/mbs.cgi/mb1081955</a><br><br>You canalso link to the board from various places onmy site, and you can link BACK to my site from theboard. (So even though, technically, the message boardis not on ericdsnider.com, it might as wellbe.)<br><br>Enjoy!<br><br>Eric

Unfortunately, the insidetheweb forum, in use from May 1, 2000 to about Feb 22, 2001, no longer exists. Because it was being shut down, a third site was initiated, the EZBoard already referred to. http://pub54.ezboard.com/fericdsniderfrm1It was in use longer than the other two sites combined, from about February 22, 2001 to August 13, 2002, officially. Alas, the EZBoard had a limited number of posts, so that all posts prior to December 3, 2001 (currently) have also been lost, (except for those recovered by PyroFalkon).

Now a new chapter in the Snide Remarks message board begins to unfold. This fourth, and possibly final, board was created by Eric's brother, Jeff Snider so that the board functions as a part of the newly revamped ericdsnider.com (which had heretofore as its most drastic overhaul, a change in the photograph of Eric used on the site). The board was announced to the general message board member as a consequence of new interstitials approximately a week before its official release. Thanks to Jeff for his creation of the board, our board. Thanks to Eric for continuing to dispense homilies of wisdom mingled with comedy (or comedy mingled with wisdom) (or whatever) giving the board a reason for existence.

We have been kicked out of the frying-pan into the fire, out of the fire into the middle of the floor, and here we are and here we will stay. God has shown me that this is the spot to locate His people, and here is where they will prosper.

Thank you Ryan, that was most enlightening. I didn't join until Message Board #2, which was just after I had bought a computer, so it's been most entertaining to go back to the original MB and read the very first messages.

Remember this from way back on page 70 something? Time flies when you're old. I really miss having so many visitors and their random comments. People used to get in trouble for having personal conversations here, because it jammed the threads. Now I usually have personal conversations all by myself.